His friends weren't screaming for help, just Uni. That doesn't mean anything, he thought frantically. Maybe Kelek froze them into crystals again. That wasn't so bad! Or maybe they're locked in his dungeon...at least Uni's all right. There's no way she'd have the strength to make THAT much noise, if Kelek had removed her horn again. And if Kelek kept Uni alive, he must have kept the others alive, too...

...right?

DM said I wasn't alone…surely he wasn't just saying that so I'd go alone. He wouldn't lie to me if they were…dead…would he?

Pleased with his reasoning, Eric felt almost optimistic. After all, the typical villains in the Realm like nothing more than to see their enemies groveling before them and calling them "master!"

With a sudden snapping, Eric broke through the last of the brambles and fell flat on his face. Quickly he ducked back into the bushes and tried to think. He hoped his extremely muddy condition would be enough camouflage as he crouched among the gnarled thorns. All his instincts told him stay there (or better yet, run away), but Uni's pitiful, terrified cries kept him from turning back.

Glancing left and right, Eric made a beeline toward the fortress. He slipped into the shadows just as two wolves padded leisurely around a corner, prowling for intruders. They paused, and bent suspicious noses to the ground. His heart sank- he only had seconds before they sniffed him out….

Suddenly the two canine guards turned and growled, bounding over to the hole in the thorns he'd emerged from, howling and barking at a cheeky squirrel and a gutsy rabbit. The two managed to avoid the snapping jaws as they led the wolves away down Eric's broken trail, teasing the wolves into a frenzy. Eric stared in frank astonishment, shook his head in bewilderment at his good fortune, and silently wished them luck.

After Dungeonmaster left, Eric sat for a while morosely by the remains of the fire. He had no appetite now for the food he'd pilfered, and various small creatures were making short work of the food in the sack he'd tossed into the woods in anger. So, it's either look for Kelek and his wolves in the dark….or spend the night alone. In the dark. Did I mention that I'm afraid of the dark? Both choices seemed hideously wrong. But DM had hinted his initial guess was right. Follow the wolf-tracks. OK. He could do that. He picked up his shining shield and placed it with finality on his arm. Then he tossed his muddy cape over his shoulder with the last bit of dignity he possessed. "OK. I am off to save the Realm!" he announced grandly, as if the announcement would make it so.

At his words, several pairs of beady eyes regarded the Cavalier. A dun hare hopped away from the sack, then looked over its shoulder, coyly. A squirrel leapt up into the trees and stared down at him, expectantly. A small gray sparrow hopped about, fluttering its wings and fluffing its feathers, chirping at him. A chipmunk and a ferret continued gnawing at a loaf of bread, but their eyes were upon him. Other animals had stopped to look at him, too, their sudden stillness nearly as unnerving as the empty town. "Well…?" he asked self-consciously. "What are you all looking at? SCRAM!"

At his shout, the forest creatures scattered like panicked leaves, leaving him alone.

Eric shook his head. "Sheesh. Look at me. Covered in mud and yelling at animals. I'm cracking up. I knew it would happen some day…"

As he trudged through the darkness, following the wolfprints by the light of the full moons, he began to imagine rustling sounds, tiny feet pattering around him, something quick and dark flitting through the branches above him. He threw rocks at the noises, and heard scuffling as his followers avoided them. Too afraid to yell at them anymore, he stomped his feet now and then, hoping to frighten them away. One of his missiles hit its mark, and he heard a little squeal of pain, followed by a torrent of chatting, unintelligible abuse. He immediately felt terrible. He'd given them food, after all. They were following him, expecting more. They were just dumb animals, after all…

A few hours later, he was talking to them. There were many of them, at one point, but as dawn approached they began melting back into the forest, leaving only a sparrow, a hare, a chipmunk, a squirrel, and a ferret. And even these hung back when Eric contemplated Kelek's fortress, watching him as he battled his fears. When Eric finally bent and thrust his way into the thorns, they remained shivering at the boundaries of the brambles, unwilling, as yet, to follow.